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Reverb Nation: Live at the 2017 Surf Guitar 101 Convention
(Entrée ERCD 2001)

Surf instrumental music, as an art form, was established in the early 1960s by bands such as Dick Dale & His Del-Tones, The Chantays, and The Surfaris. That reverbed, guitar-driven instrumental sound blasted out of Southern California over 50 years ago; today, it’s embraced and practiced by hundreds of bands in this country and around the world.

Every summer for the last 10 years, the Surf Guitar 101 Convention has attracted a great many fans to Southern California for a three-day feast of surf music. The event includes dozens of vendors selling CDs, t-shirts, and all sorts of swag related to surf music. The event not only celebrates the music, it also brings together many of those who habit the social networking website, www.surfguitar101.com (after which the Convention was named). It’s a time to renew old friendships and make new ones.

The big draw each year, however, are the many surf instrumental bands invited from all over the country AND the world to perform. The 2017 event featured some of the best surf bands from Southern California that included Outerwave, The Volcanics, The Tequila Worms, Par Avion, and The Insect Surfers (originally formed in 1979, this group is recognized as the longest running modern surf instrumental band). The rest of the country was represented by The Mystery Men (from Georgia), The Atomic Mosquitos (from Washington D.C.), The Exotics (from Wisconsin), and The Madeira (from Indiana).

Since this music has become truly universal, the 2017 Surf Guitar 101 Convention also featured The Kilaueas and The El Caminos. These two bands, from Germany and Japan, respectively, prove that surf instrumental music is not only loved and accepted on the other side of the planet, but the reverence that exists for the music’s traditional sound and style transcends language and cultural barriers.

In 2017, the event attracted the attention of three-time Grammy Award winning producer and engineer Mark Linett, who recorded Friday and Saturday night’s shows, and mixed and produced the tracks. Those performances are represented on the new compilation CD from Entrée Records, “Reverb Nation: Live at the 2017 Surf Guitar 101 Convention.”

The worldwide release date for this CD is 7 August. However, copies will be available at a special price for this year's SG101 Convention on 4 August.